The Train

The film is based on the novel by rose Wallen "Front art".

The operation of the French railway Aug 1944, shown in the film, is fictional and bears a collective character, illustrating the operation of the underground railway during the four years of German occupation.

Initially, the film was approved by Arthur Penn. However, he spent only one day at the insistence of Burt Lancaster was replaced by John Frankenheimer. Lancaster did not like the concept of Penn. The latter was going to shoot purely drama, focusing on, above all, the role of art in people's lives. Why are they risking their lives trying to save the paintings, not very understanding of painting — this question was supposed to answer the film of foam. The same operation he was going to devote a minimum of screen time. According to the Frankenheimer version of the Penn train never left the station all of the first 90 pages of the script.

Burt Lancaster himself performs all the stunts in the film. Also albert Remy unhooks himself on the move the locomotive from the cars with pictures.

The producers hired a train to transport equipment from one filming location to another. This train stands in the film, as the transport of paintings.

Filming was such a clatter of steam engines and other machines that the command "action" and "cut" are often passed by a special code using the locomotive whistles.

The main railway scenes were filmed in the rail yard of Argenta, depo Saint-Ouen, glacier-Gentile, Ver-Torcy and Gargenville. Air RAID on the station of the Ver was lifted in Gargenville near Paris (former marshalling yard). Team Lee Zavitz (special effects wizard), consisting of 50 people for six weeks installed and connected pyrotechnic device, which then "blew up" the station in one minute of screen time.

In 2004, "The New York Times" included a "Train" 1000 best films of the world.

To shoot the air RAID involved more than 50 people who 6 weeks preparing props and pyrotechnics to destroy all in less than a minute.

Locomotive No. 757 (the type 030С Bourbonne) aimed at derailed the locomotive of a train with pictures of, hit in the last at 60 miles per hour. The episode was filmed in Normandy, in Equine with extreme security measures and with only one take. The shooting took place from the family cameras. The scene of the crash of the first locomotive (type 230V) filmed with five cameras, three of which were broken because of leaving the rails, the locomotive was moving with greater speed than planned.

The scene where Paul Labis climbs the hill above the railway, filmed in the valley of the river Eure, close to the Auteuil-Otuya.

Somewhere in the middle of the shooting process Burt Lancaster took a day off to play Golf. During the game he fell in a hole and injured his knee so that he could walk only with a limp. To continue filming, John Frankenheimer included in the picture of the episode chasing Labiche and his wound in the leg.

And when it became known that Michel Simon would not be able to complete the work in all scheduled with him the scenes, Frankenheimer entered into the script the scene of the execution of Papa Boule.